48 Million in Poverty,Record # homeless school children,cuts 2 food stamps....but we will help Iraq?

[J_J_]

More Than 48 Million Americans Live In Poverty, Census Bureau Reports
http://q13fox.com/2014/10/16/more-than-48-million-americans-live-in-poverty-census-bureau-reports/

DU discussion
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014920745



A record number of homeless students were enrolled in US public schools last year, according to new numbers released Monday by the Department of Education.

The data – which most experts say underreport the actual number of homeless children in America – showed that nearly 1.3 million homeless children and teens were enrolled in schools in the 2012-13 school year, an 8 percent increase from the previous school year.

http://www.adn.com/article/20140923/record-number-homeless-children-enrolled-us-public-schools

President Obama added his signature to legislation that will cut $8.7 billion in food stamp benefits over the next 10 years, causing 850,000 households to lose an average of $90 per month. The signing of the legislation known as the 2014 Farm Bill occurred at a public event in East Lansing, Mich.

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/obama-signs-food-stamp-cut




WASHINGTON (MCT) — The air war in Syria and Iraq has already cost nearly $1 billion and ultimately could cost as much as $22 billion per year if a large ground force is deployed to the region

http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/cost-of-air-war-against-islamic-state-already-near-1-billion-as-strategy-shifts-1.305511

[The Blue Flower]

1. There is no money to be made off the poor

Unless, of course, you count the purchase of food, clothing, and a roof over their heads. But certainly nothing like the millions made by warmaking.

[woo me with science]

6. They're certainly working on it:

Poor minorities are worthless to corporations on the street. In prison they can bring in $40,000/yr
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023368969

Poor Land in Jail as Companies Add Huge Fees for Probation
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014158005

The Caging of America - Why do we lock up so many people
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002226110

The Obama administration is aggressively growing private prisons
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022568681

Obama's 2013 budget: One area of marked growth, the prison industrial complex
http://sync.democraticunderground.com/1002392306

Obama selects the owner of a private prison consulting firm as the new Director of the United States Marshals Service (USMS)
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2010/12/mars-d03.html

Private prison corporations move up on list on federal contractors, receiving BILLIONS
http://www.nationofchange.org/president-obama-s-incarcernation-1335274655

Federal Private Prison Populations Grew by 784% in 10 Year Span
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4362184

Prison Labor Booms As Unemployment Remains High; Companies Reap Benefits
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/10/prison-labor_n_2272036.html

Private Prison Corporation's Letters to Shareholders Reveal Industry's Tactics: Profiting from Human Incarceration
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022665091

Financial growth of private prison industry...Profiting from caging humans.

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/BshteP8i282pcaeH8pdUsA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTUyMA--/

We heard about private prisons...but do you know of the private probation industry?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025380204

NYT: Probation Fees Rise, Firms Profit and the Poor Go to Jail
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002893040

No Safe Place: How Cities Are Making It Illegal to be Homeless
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101699724

Thrown in jail for being poor: the booming for-profit probation industry
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024603515

The exploitation of Ferguson I: In 2013 the town issued over 24,000 arrest warrants..
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025404667

The exploitation of Ferguson II: The Seamy Underbelly Of Ferguson Starts To Appear
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025416747

The exploitation of Ferguson III: Ferguson Feeds Off the Poor: Three Warrants a Year Per Household
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025428157

[Go Vols]

15. +1

[Jesus Malverde]

27. Thanks...nt

[CrispyQ]

31. This needs to be it's own post.

So much for the right wing CT that we are all going to be put in FEMA camps. The 1% can't make as much money with us in FEMA camps as they can with us in a private prison.

There is something inherently wrong about someone making profit over locking up our citizens.

How do his supporters defend this?

[jwirr]

16. And do not forget the jobs that administer the programs and carry them out. These people are also

part of our economy and they pay taxes. As a retired part-time social worker I think that we sometimes forget that employing workers is also a part of helping the economy recover. Better to pay our workers in the US than fight continue a war in the ME.

[maced666]

30. You left out healthcare

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/18/us/unable-to-meet-the-deductible-or-the-doctor.html?src=twr

[MannyGoldstein]

2. But the 1% are doing better every year.

And there's a committee. And Yellen acknowledged that it sucks to not be rich.

Under control, relax.

[maced666]

29. Not under Obama.

He has reversed the process after six long years.

[Wellstone ruled]

3. If you checked the headlines today this jumps out at you.

Rethugs expected to win the House in a landslide. Rethugs expected to win the Senate good bye Harry. Governorships expected to by in Rethug control. WTF!!!!!!! Wake the hell up America,if you are a 1%er,vote that way,doubt there are folks here that resemble this. Here in Vegas we have at anytime some forty thousand homeless people. The sad part,most are Vets and families that got wiped out in the housing crash. There are eleven elementary schools were most of the children are on free or reduced lunch programs. Here is a little tid bit,a local charity runs a free food program at these schools every other week for the families of the students. Just pull the subsidies for the takers and give it to the more deserving folks. The folks in Vegas are at the mercy of the Adelman's and Wynn's and other Casino owners. BTW,the kids that attend these schools are not just Hispanic or people with brown skin. Most of their parents work for the a fore mentioned Casino owners.

[J_J_]

8. they are just lying about Republicans winning everything, manufacturing consent

they are planning to steal it, I am sure of it.

There is no way in hell after the way Republicans have been behaving that anyone believes they will fix anything.

They are immature 3 year old sociopaths.

One hallmark of fascism- propaganda, polls, media manufacturing consent

another hallmark- stolen elections

And I have more than enough evidence to expect it

Want Mark Begich to Win the Alaska Senate Seat? In Alaska, there is 200% voter turnout!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025659265

[marions ghost]

9. yes they will have to steal it...we know they will

[woo me with science]

10. The real goal is always divided government, not majorities.

Corporatists depend on closely divided government, because "gridlock" is their excuse for being perpetually unable to respond to the will of voters. They can only keep enacting a vicious predatory corporate agenda if they can disguise it as "compromise" made necessary by the gridlock.

The irony is that the two corporate parties are in agreement about an agenda that neither side out in the country wants. They lie to both sides and tell each side that the others are the ones getting everything they want.

Both corporate parties and their propaganda machines will work hard to *ensure* continued closely divided government. If that means trying to dampen turnout by leveling unfounded smears against their own base, that's what they'll do.

They know that any party with strong majorities cannot continue to claim to be unable to respond to the will of the People.

The con game is very familiar by now:

Perhaps the administration is not really all that into having progressive majorities in Congress.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=337938

For so long we mysteriously fell short of Democratic votes for filibuster reform.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021809132

The Democratic Party’s deceitful game
http://www.salon.com/2010/02/23/democrats_34/

[n2doc]

21. We are seeing the fruits of Citizens United

It took them a cycle, but Koch Bro's et al have figured out how to blanket the airwaves with propaganda. The Media goes along since that's who is paying the bills. Nothing but a 100% 24/7 cycle of lies and fear mongering. And they are also paying to better their ground game. Massive amounts of money can do that.

Anyone who thinks Americans will wake up is fooling themselves. Didn't happen when Fascists took over previously in other countries, and their tools are much better now.

It's going to get bad.

[wavesofeuphoria]

4. 8% increase in children in a year?!?!

While cutting $8b in food stamps???

Where's a poverty czar when you need one?


Thanks for the post J_J_

[woo me with science]

5. K&R. If our government weren't corrupt, this would be an emergency vastly dwarfing 911.

We would have politicians addressing crowds with bullhorns, expressing outrage about the gutting of our middle class and devastation of the poor, the destruction of major parts of our Constitution's Bill of Rights, and vowing a relentless response to restore this country to the people our government is supposed to represent.

Instead, what's on the horizon? Another round of food stamp cuts signed by our Democratic president. Implementation of a farm bill based on more "pension smoothing." A new extended war in the Middle East, that just happens to continue the PNAC playbook. A new trillion-dollar ramping up of US nuclear weapons from a Democratic President. Use of our money to carpet-bomb a captive population in Gaza. More defense of mass surveillance and secret laws and secret courts, and the impending imprisonment of a journalist who dared to promise confidentiality to the source whistleblowing about it. And two more massive, predatory "trade" agreements that will further gut jobs, force Americans to compete with Third World wages, and hand corporations the power to censor the internet and override democratic protections of human beings and the environment against their abuses.

[Puzzledtraveller]

19. but he has a (D) by his name, and a great smile!

He's "got this" haven't you heard?

[woo me with science]

20. +1 *And* a cute dog. And did you see that pic of Hillary with that adoring little girl?!

That proves she'll "have it," too!!1! All actual policies notwithstanding.

[theHandpuppet]

7. A big K&R for this thread!

[leftstreet]

11. DURec

[riderinthestorm]

12. K&R nt

[daredtowork]

13. +1 (trillion!)

I'm so sick of the ease at which Congress can vote obscene amount amounts of money to "Defense" but anything to do with actually helping people is somehow busting the budget. Obviously we "can" afford that if we "can" afford to blow a trillion dollars on a plane that will be obsolete in a few years and will probably crash at some point anyway.

This country's priorities are so frakked up it makes me tear my hair out.

It's impossible to just get problems solved. Right now I have an issue with a simple medical referral appeal. I would like to just tell someone why the procedure needs to be done. Instead I'm told I have to go to file for a hearing, seek out lawyers, etc. - which I don't want to do because I spent the whole of last month dealing with crap like that related to an "oopsie" dropping of Medi-Cal for a month. Because I started crying while the medical clinic was telling me there was nothing they can do, they sent police(!!!!) out to my house to check on me! In front of my neighbors! Society can do absolutely nothing about the problems that are causing the stress, and that are just ridiculous and wrong - but they sure do have the resources to send the police and offer "mobile crisis counseling" if I want it!

No - what I want is someone to listen to me and address the goddamned problem.

Sorry for the tangent, but I think it does speak to what is wrong with the big picture here. The people with all the power don't listen to what the problems are and what is needed. They just project some vision of order and control that overpaints everyone else, and they spend money on whatever will enforce their authoritarian and control impulses. They will throw all sorts of money at "psychological services" these days (note that it's called "Behavioral Health" when you get to the Medicaid/Medi-Cal poverty level) because that's about behavior control. They will throw all sorts of money at police, jails, and weapons of "defense" (war). We have limitless amounts of money when it comes to controlling people and imposing order. But when it comes to actually doing something that would help? All the sudden, we're wringing our hands over big government and deficit spending.

God this country makes me so mad sometimes.

[liberal_at_heart]

14. screw an increase in minimum wage. We must have a living wage.

and stop going to war with the ME. Democrats better start paying attention to the poor or we will have more and more people not voting. We're tired of the lip service. Stop making campaign promises that we know you're going to break and just start doing the right thing damn it. Actions speak louder than words.

[woo me with science]

17. Amen.

[Puzzledtraveller]

18. But some people are doing great, so this is just petulant whining.

[n2doc]

22. "Help" Iraq

If we help them enough they will completely disintegrate. Our "Help" has killed hundreds of thousands already.

[liberal_at_heart]

23. kick because it is important.

[Initech]

24. There's always plenty of money for war!

[Scuba]

25. If we can't afford to educate our children, to heal our sick or care for our elderly ...

... then just what is it the defense budget is defending?

[woo me with science]

26. [phone]

[maced666]

28. These read like RW talking points

Poverty has gone down, not up - under Obama.
Food stamp needs have gone down - not up - under Obama.